Too often, great ideas and opportunities don’t come to fruition because having a great idea for a product is not always enough. According to Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen, each year 30,000 new products (physical and digital) are launched – 95% of which fail.
When you think of your favourite digital products and their success, you may think that it lies in a good idea and millions of investments. However, what you don’t see is that behind every successful product are ups and downs, risks, and challenges. One of the reasons that these product ideas don’t realise their potential is due to the lack of a well-defined digital product strategy – or the complete absence of one.
What is a Digital Product Strategy?
A digital product strategy is the plan that’s used to develop your product or feature from creation to market. It helps you to define the value you will create in a succinct and tangible way; where to focus, why, and what it will take to achieve that value.
The best time to start working on the digital product strategy is before the development process, that way you’ll have a solid and dependable roadmap to follow every step of the way.
Why should you create a Digital Product Strategy?
Launching a new product, in any market, can be challenging. So, if you’re thinking of taking a product to market, it makes sense to be prepared. If you’re not already convinced, here are some of the benefits of envisioning your product’s future:
1. It provides you with structure
Having a well-planned and thorough product strategy provides you with a reliable framework from start to finish. So instead of relying on guesswork or changing between different approaches, you will have a timeline of what objectives and initiatives you’re going to introduce and when you’re going to implement them.
2. It helps you meet your customers’ needs
A good product strategy will help you understand who your customers are and what motivates them to use your product. That way, from the beginning, your product will be on track to dazzle your customers, obliterate their expectations, and hit the specific goals you set at the start.
3. It helps you develop a clear understanding of the market and your competitors
No matter how unique your product is, it is unlikely to be the first of its kind in your target market. So, it’s important to know who your direct and indirect competitors are and what your product offers that nobody else’s does. Your digital product strategy will highlight how you’ll position your product, and how it’ll fare against your competitors.
4. You are less likely to invest time and money into the wrong solutions
With a strategy, you will have time to research different solutions and choose which would be best for your product. Investing in the right solutions and emerging technologies at the start will help ensure the long-term security and effective performance of your products.
5. It reduces the risk of building the wrong product
Defining your goals at the start of the development process helps you keep in mind your business focus and holistic goals to get precisely what you need and prevent product failure.
6. It allows you to track progress so you can make any necessary changes
Although you may not be able to predict the future, a sufficiently researched digital product strategy can help you identify risks so you can avoid them and make plans should any complications arise during the development process.
The best product strategies are data-driven. They involve tracking certain metrics to measure your success and make it easy to notice when things aren’t working out so you can make adjustments. This is far more effective than simply basing decisions on guesswork and hunches.
7. It ensures clarity and focus throughout the development process
A solid product strategy is a roadmap for everyone working on the project. With it, they will know what’s happening and what their specific role is and they will be able to refer back to it should any issues arise. They will also be aware of how their specific work is impacting the overall process, so they can do their jobs as effectively as possible.
How can we help?
It’s clear that a well thought out digital product strategy is an incredibly important part of launching and delivering any digital product. At Cyber we have helped many companies throughout the process of creating their digital product strategy as well as product development and release.
If you have a great idea for a new digital product that you’re thinking of developing, contact our team now to see how we can help.